Azure MySQL

Last updated on Dec 18, 2024

Prerequisites
Create a Read Replica (Optional)
Set up MySQL Binary Logs for Replication
Whitelist Hevo’s IP Addresses
Create a Database User and Grant Privileges
- 1. Create a database user (Optional)
- 2. Grant privileges to the user
Retrieve the Hostname and Port Number (Optional)
Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings
Object and Query Mode Settings
Data Replication
Source Considerations
Limitations
Revision History

Azure MySQL Database is an easy to set up, operate, and scale fully managed database service from Microsoft. It can automate your database management and maintenance, including routine updates, backups and security, enabling you to focusing on working with your data.

You can ingest data from your Azure MySQL database using Hevo Pipelines and replicate it to a Destination of your choice.

Getting Started

Setup

Data Sync

Prerequisites

The Azure MySQL database instance (not the local host) is running. To check this:
1. Log in to the Microsoft Azure Portal and select the Azure MySQL database you want to connect to Hevo.
2. In the Overview tab, confirm that the Status field has the value Available.
The MySQL version is 5.7 or higher. You can choose the MySQL version while creating the instance.
Binary Log (BinLog) replication is enabled, if Pipeline mode is BinLog.
Hevo’s IP addresses are whitelisted.
SELECT and REPLICATION privileges are granted to the database user.

Note: We recommend that you create a database user for configuring your Azure MySQL Source in Hevo. However, if you already have one, refer to section Grant privileges to the user.
Database hostname and port number of the Source instance are available.
You are assigned the Team Administrator, Team Collaborator, or Pipeline Administrator role in Hevo, to create the Pipeline.

Perform the following steps to configure your Azure MySQL Source:

Create a Read Replica (Optional)

To use an existing read-replica or connect Hevo to your master database, skip to Set up MySQL Binary Logs for Replication section.

Note: In order to create a Azure MySQL read-replica instance, your master instance must be a Flexible server.

To create a read-replica:

Log in to the Azure Portal.
Under Resources, Recent tab, select the database for which you want to create a read-replica.
In the left navigation pane, under Settings, click Replication, and then click + Add Replica.
In the Server details section, specify the Server name and the Compute + Storage, and then click Review + Create to review your configuration.
Click Create to create a read-replica.

A notification is displayed to confirm that the read-replica was created successfully.

Set up MySQL Binary Logs for Replication

Hevo supports data ingestion from the MySQL database instance via binary logs (BinLog). A binary log is a collection of log files that records information about data modifications and data object modifications made on a MySQL database instance. Typically, binary logs are used for data replication and data recovery.

By default, Row-based BinLog Replication in Azure MySQL. To change this to capture the entire data:

Access your Microsoft Azure MySQL instance.
Under Resources, Recent tab, select the database you want to synchronize with Hevo.
In the left navigation pane, under Settings, click Server Parameters.

Under the Top tab, update the values of the parameters as follows:

Parameter Name	Value
`binlog_row_image`	full
`binlog_expire_logs_seconds`	A value greater than or equal to 259200 (three days).

Log parameters

Click Save.
Confirm under Notifications that your changes have been applied and the instance has restarted successfully before running the Pipeline, to avoid errors.

Whitelist Hevo’s IP Addresses

You need to whitelist the Hevo IP addresses for your region to enable Hevo to connect to your Microsoft Azure MySQL database. You can do this by creating firewall rules in your Microsoft Azure database settings as follows:

Access your Microsoft Azure MySQL instance.
Under Resources, Recent tab, select the database you want to synchronize with Hevo.
In the left navigation pane, under Settings, click Networking.
Create a Firewall Rule:
1. Specify a Firewall rule name.
2. Specify Hevo’s IP addresses in the Start IP address and End IP address fields as per your region, and then click Save to save the rule.
  
  Note: As Hevo has specific IP addresses and not a range, the value in Start IP address and End IP address fields will be the same.
3. Repeat this step to add the IP address for each applicable Hevo region.

Create a Database User and Grant Privileges

1. Create a database user (Optional)

Perform the following steps to create a database user in your Azure MySQL database:

Connect to your Azure MySQL database as an admin user with an SQL client tool, such as MySQL workbench.
Create a database user:
```
CREATE USER <username>@'%' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY '<password>';
```
Note: Replace the placeholder values in the command above with your own. For example, <username> with hevo.

2. Grant privileges to the user

The database user specified in the Hevo Pipeline must have the following global privileges:

SELECT
SUPER or (REPLICATION CLIENT and REPLICATION SLAVE)

Perform the following steps to set up these privileges:

Connect to your Azure MySQL database as an admin user with an SQL client tool, such as MySQL workbench.

Grant SELECT and REPLICATION privileges to the user:

GRANT SELECT, REPLICATION CLIENT, REPLICATION SLAVE ON *.* TO <username>@'%';

(Optional) View the grants for the user:
```
show grants for <username>@localhost;
```
Note:
- Replace the placeholder values in the commands above with your own. For example, <username> with hevo.
- The REPLICATION SLAVE privilege is required only if you connect to a read replica. When it is granted to the authenticating user, the replica logs any updates received from the main database, maintaining a record of those changes in its log.

Retrieve the Hostname and Port Number (Optional)

Note: The Azure MySQL hostnames start with your database name and end with windows.net.
For example:
Host : mysql.database.windows.net
Port : 3306

To retrieve the hostname:

Log in to the Microsoft Azure Portal.
Under Resources, Recent tab select your Azure database for MySQL server.
Under Essentials panel, locate the Server name. Use this Server name as the hostname in Hevo while creating your Pipeline.

The default port is 3306.

Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings

Perform the following steps to configure Azure MySQL as a Source in Hevo:

Click PIPELINES in the Navigation Bar.
Click + CREATE PIPELINE in the Pipelines List View.
On the Select Source Type page, select Azure MySQL.

On the Configure your Azure MySQL Source page, specify the following:

Azure MySQL settings

Pipeline Name: A unique name for your Pipeline, not exceeding 255 characters.

Database Host: The MySQL host’s IP address or DNS.

The following table lists a few examples of MySQL hosts:

Variant	Host
Amazon RDS MySQL	mysql-rds-1.xxxxx.rds.amazonaws.com
Azure MySQL	mysql.database.windows.net
Generic MySQL	10.123.10.001 or mysql-replica.westeros.inc
Google Cloud MySQL	35.220.150.0

Note: For URL-based hostnames, exclude the http:// or https:// part. For example, if the hostname URL is http://mysql-replica.westeros.inc, enter mysql-replica.westeros.inc.

Database Port: The port on which your Azure MySQL server listens for connections. Default value: 3306.
Database User: The authenticated user who has the permissions to read tables in your database.
Database Password: The password for the database user.
Select an Ingestion Mode: The desired mode by which you want to ingest data from the Source. You can expand this section by clicking SEE MORE to view the list of ingestion modes to choose from. Default value: BinLog. The available Ingestion Modes are BinLog, Table, and Custom SQL.

Depending on the ingestion mode you select, you must configure the objects to be replicated. Refer to section, Object and Query Mode Settings for the steps to do this.

Note: For Custom SQL ingestion mode, all Events loaded to the Destination are billable.
Database Name: The database you want to load data from if the Pipeline mode is Table or Custom SQL.
Connection Settings
- Connect through SSH: Enable this option to connect to Hevo using an SSH tunnel, instead of directly connecting your MySQL database host to Hevo. This provides an additional level of security to your database by not exposing your MySQL setup to the public. Read Connecting Through SSH.
  
  If this option is disabled, you must whitelist Hevo’s IP addresses. Refer to the content for your MySQL variant for steps to do this.
- Use SSL: Enable it to use SSL encrypted connection. To enable this, specify the following:
  - CA File: The file containing the SSL server certificate authority (CA).
    - Load all CA Certificates: If selected, Hevo loads all CA certificates (up to 50) from the uploaded CA file, else it loads only the first certificate.
      
      Note: Select this check box if you have more than one certificate in your CA file.
  - Client Certificate: The client public key certificate file.
  - Client Key: The client private key file.
Advanced Settings
- Load All Databases: Applicable for Pipelines with BinLog mode. If this option is enabled, Hevo loads the data from all databases on the selected host. Else, specify a comma-separated list of Database Names you want to load data from.
- Load Historical Data: Applicable for Pipelines with BinLog mode. If this option is enabled, the entire table data is fetched during the first run of the Pipeline. If disabled, Hevo loads only the data that was written in your database after the time of creation of the Pipeline.
- Merge Tables: Applicable for Pipelines with BinLog mode. If this option is enabled, Hevo merges tables with the same name from different databases while loading the data to the warehouse. Hevo loads the Database Name field with each record. If disabled, the database name is prefixed to each table name. Read How does the Merge Tables feature work?.
- Include New Tables in the Pipeline: Applicable for all Ingestion modes except Custom SQL.
  
  If enabled, Hevo automatically ingests data from tables created in the Source after the Pipeline has been built. These may include completely new tables or previously deleted tables that have been re-created in the Source.
  
  If disabled, new and re-created tables are not ingested automatically. They are added in SKIPPED state in the objects list, on the Pipeline Overview page. You can update their status to INCLUDED to ingest data. You can include these objects post-Pipeline creation to ingest data.
  
  You can change this setting later.

Click TEST CONNECTION. This button is enabled once you specify all the mandatory fields. Hevo’s underlying connectivity checker validates the connection settings you provide.
Click TEST & CONTINUE to proceed for setting up the Destination. This button is enabled once you specify all the mandatory fields.

Object and Query Mode Settings

Once you have specified the Source connection settings in Step 6 above, do one of the following:

For Pipelines with Table or BinLog mode:
1. On the Select Objects page, select the objects you want to replicate and click CONTINUE.
  
  Note: Each object represents a table in your database.
2. On the Configure Objects page, specify the query mode you want to use for each selected object.
For Pipelines with Custom SQL mode:
1. On the Provide Query Settings page, enter the custom SQL query to fetch data from the Source.
2. In the Query Mode drop-down, select the query mode, and click CONTINUE.

Data Replication

For Teams Created	Ingestion Mode	Default Ingestion Frequency	Minimum Ingestion Frequency	Maximum Ingestion Frequency	Custom Frequency Range (in Hrs)
Before Release 2.21	Table	15 Mins	15 Mins	24 Hrs	1-24
	Log-based	5 Mins	5 Mins	1 Hr	NA
After Release 2.21	Table	6 Hrs	30 Mins	24 Hrs	1-24
	Log-based	30 Mins	30 Mins	12 Hrs	1-24

Note: The custom frequency must be set in hours as an integer value. For example, 1, 2, or 3 but not 1.5 or 1.75.

Historical Data: In the first run of the Pipeline, Hevo ingests all available data for the selected objects from your Source database.
Incremental Data: Once the historical load is complete, data is ingested as per the ingestion frequency.

Additional Information

Read the detailed Hevo documentation for the following related topics:

Source Considerations

MySQL does not generate log entries for cascading deletes. So, Hevo cannot capture these deletes for log-based Pipelines.

Limitations

Logging in using SSL not supported. This setting is enabled by default. You can disable it as follows:
1. In the left navigation pane, under Settings, click Server Parameters.
2. Under the Top tab, update the value of require_secure_transport server parameter to OFF, and then click Save.
Hevo only fetches tables from the MySQL database. It does not fetch other entities such as functions, stored procedures, views, and triggers.

To fetch views, you can create individual Pipelines in Custom SQL mode. However, some limitations may arise based on the type of data synchronization, the query mode, or the number of Events. Contact Hevo Support for more details.
During the historical load, Hevo reads table definitions directly from the MySQL database schema, whereas for incremental updates, Hevo reads from the BinLog. As a result, certain fields, such as nested JSON, are parsed differently during historical and incremental loads. In the Destination tables, nested JSON fields are parsed as a struct or JSON during historical loads, but as a string during incremental loads. This leads to a data type mismatch between the Source and Destination data, causing Events to be sidelined.

To ensure JSON fields are parsed correctly during the historical load, you can apply transformations to every table containing nested JSON fields. Contact Hevo Support for more details.
Hevo Pipelines may fail to process transactions in the BinLog if the size of the transaction exceeds 4GB. This problem is due to a MySQL bug that affects the library used by Hevo to stream Events, resulting in ingestion failures. In such cases, Hevo attempts to restart the ingestion process from the beginning of the transaction, skipping already processed Events. If the problem of transaction processing persists and the BinLog remains stuck, contact Hevo Support for assistance.

Revision History

Refer to the following table for the list of key updates made to this page:

Date	Release	Description of Change
Dec-18-2024	NA	Updated section, Limitations to add information about Hevo handling transaction failures in the BinLog due to a MySQL bug affecting transactions exceeding 4GB.
Nov-18-2024	NA	Updated sections, Create a Read Replica (Optional), Whitelist Hevo’s IP Addresses, and Limitations as per the latest Azure MySQL UI.
Jul-31-2024	NA	Updated section, Limitations to add information about Hevo reading table definitions differently during historical and incremental loads.
Apr-29-2024	NA	Updated section, Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings to include more detailed steps.
Mar-18-2024	2.21.2	Updated section, Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings to add information about the Load all CA certificates option.
Mar-05-2024	2.21	Added the Data Replication section.
Nov-03-2023	NA	Renamed section, Object Settings to Object and Query Mode Settings.
Oct-27-2023	NA	Updated section, Create a Database User and Grant Privileges with the latest steps.
Jun-26-2023	NA	Added section, Source Considerations.
Apr-21-2023	NA	Updated section, Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings to add a note to inform users that all loaded Events are billable for Custom SQL mode-based Pipelines.
Mar-09-2023	2.09	Updated section, Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings to mention about SEE MORE in the Select an Ingestion Mode section.
Dec-19-2022	2.04	Updated section, Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings to add information that you must specify all fields to create a Pipeline.
Dec-07-2022	2.03	Updated section, Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings to mention about including skipped objects post-Pipeline creation.
Dec-07-2022	2.03	Updated section, Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings to mention about the connectivity checker.
Oct-13-2022	1.99	Updated section, Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings to reflect the latest UI changes.
Apr-21-2022	1.86	Updated section, Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings.
Aug-09-2021	NA	Added a note in the Grant privileges to a user step.
Jul-26-2021	1.68	Added a note for the Database Host field.
Jul-12-2021	NA	Added section, Specify Azure MySQL Connection Settings.
Feb-22-2021	1.57	Updated the Create a Read Replica section to provide UI-based steps.